A collection of letters (family and professional), notebooks, diaries, lectures, articles, and photographs, of Smith, a noted American geographer who influenced the teaching of geography after 1920 through his many elementary texts. There is much material relating to these writings. His contributions to the rise of human geography and the related areas of conservation and ecology, are documented. His study in Europe under Friedrich Ratzel, at Leipzig in 1901-1912, is touched on in his journal for those years; included are many interesting observations on German university life. There is also much material on his nursery business in Virginia. Organizational files are numerous, e.g. Association of American Geographers, Columbia University, U. S. Department of Agriculture. Much of the correspondence is limited to only a few letters from each correspondent. Among the names included are: Willard G. Bixby, Isaiah Bowman, John W. Hershey, Emory R. Johnson, Walter C. Lowdermilk (of particular note is his 1926 paper, written while at the University of Nanking, "Forest Conservation in Shansi, China"), and Lewis Mumford.

One of Philadelphia's most recognized geographers at the turn of the twentieth century, Henry Grier Bryant (1859-1932) was an explorer, traveler, and writer known for an avid interest in the arctic. His financial independence enabled Bryant to devote his life to expanding geographic knowledge, as an officer of the Geographic Society of Philadelphia and Alpine Club of America, and as an explorer and traveler to Labrador, Greenland, the Canadian Rockies, South America, and southern and southeast Asia. The Bryant Letterbooks include an important slice of outgoing correspondence from the geographer and explorer, Henry G. Bryant, documenting his interest in geography and exploration. The four volumes consist of letterpress copies of outgoing correspondence (1884-1890, 1899-1902, 1902-1903, and 1913-1918) concerning personal and financial matters as well as business conducted as an officer of the Geographical Society of Philadelphia and Alpine Club of America. The collection also includes three folders of correspondence addressed to Bryant, 1886-1911, mostly pertaining to the Alpine Club.

This collection includes correspondence, lectures, notebooks, reports, photographs, and maps. There is much in Russell's papers concerning the Department of Geography at L.S.U., as well as faculty and research concerns and other needs of the university.